Slogging spanners, such as the Bahco 100mm Slogging Spanner, tighten a nut after they are initially tightened manually. The fastener’s elasticity is established using index markers, and this works out the torque required. Unlike most spanners, the crows foot spanner has no handle. It is shaped like an open-end spanner but has no shaft, making it ideal for use where 6pt and 12pt spanners can’t reach. To extend the length, it can be combined with a ratchet, or to apply extra force, a torque wrench may be used. Crows foot spanner sets are also available. Heamar offer several Torx spanners, including the Stahlwille E20 & E24 Double Ended Torx Spanner, which is suitable for heavy use and is manufactured using chrome alloy steel.

a b c d e f g Geesin, Ron (2015), The Adjustable Spanner: History, Origins and Development to 1970, Crowood Press, ISBN 9781785000362. JP started his company, Enköpings Mekaniska Verkstad, in Sweden in 1887. He always had a set of pipe wrenches to hand in his workshop. Each wrench fitted a particular size of pipe, but this meant having to carry around a variety of sizes. This is where his idea of an adjustable pipe wrench sprung to mind. He designed it so that its jaws could be easily adjusted to fit all pipes, irrespective of size. The pipe wrench is now known and sold worldwide. There are different designs which provide the same results, such as the adjustable pin spanner. Usually, a pin spanner contains a hole so it can be attached to lanyards or other tools. Others sometimes have an additional hole, which can be used for flat-sided fasteners.

This tool has a looped head to grip the fastener on all sides, meaning it’s less likely to slip off when used. Ring spanners are double-headed and can turn a fastener in wider arcs so it takes less time to loosen and tighten. When looking for the right pin spanner, two different sizes are usually given, and these are the distance between the central points of both pins and the diameter of the pins. The diameter tends to be between 2.9mm-10mm, and the distance between the pins is usually between 10mm-230mm. Another popular type of adjustable spanner has a base and jaws that form four sides of a hexagon, and is therefore particularly suited for hexagonal nuts ("hex nuts") and hexagonal headed ("hex head") cap screws and bolts. Avoid using hammers, mallets or other striking tools to apply extra torque to any type of spanner that isn’t explicitly designed and built for that purpose (most adjustable wrenches are not)

A hook spanner is curved and has a hooked nose or a pin at the end, allowing it to grip the nut or bolt. This pin connects with the hole, enabling it to turn the fastener. This is a special-purpose tool that can be used on ring nuts and is often used to maintain motorbikes and cars. This variation can fit with most holds, which is a unique quality of the open-end crows foot spanner. It is commonly used by auto mechanics and people who do DIY. There are two versions of the adjustable crows foot, (the adjustable spanner and the self-adjusting spanner). The adjustable crows foot is for a larger bar size range than the open-end spanner. The self-adjusting crows foot contains an inner bar that is spring-loaded, which is worked by the flexible lever accompanying this spanner. This lever enables the spanner to fit tighter to the nut or bolt, meaning more force (torque) is applied to the fastener. An adjustable spanner - also known as an adjustable wrench, most commonly in the US - is a familiar everyday tool used by millions of professional and hobbyist users worldwide.

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Most spanners of this kind are designed for hexagonally shaped nuts and bolts. The box spanner is a small metal tube with holes drilled at a perpendicular angle into the metal. The Tommy bar, also known as the T-bar, can then be inserted through the holes so the spanner can be turned. You need a Tommy bar to use the box spanner, as it enables you to turn the spanner like a tap.

Sometimes a project requires multiple spanners. The combination spanner has two ends, one open-ended and the other looped. This loop is a ring spanner, and both ends of this tool fit onto the same size fastener. You can find them in sizes between 3mm-80mm, and the handle’s length increases with the size of the heads. There are a great many different sizes of adjustable spanner available on today’s market. Wrenches are usually sized first and foremost by the diameter of fastener they can accommodate, with a secondary measurement given referring to the length of the tool’s handle (longer handles generally allow for higher torque). The magneto spanner is the ideal solution for small nut bolts. It is a collection of small, connected single-end spanners in different sizes that are usually distinguished via numbers, with 8 being the largest spanner and 1 being the smallest. These spanners can range between 100mm-750mm long, and they can fit onto hexagonal fasteners sized between 4mm-210mm. If you want to use a ring spanner for a square fastener, increase the size of the fastener head by 25%. This number is the size of the required spanner. As it is possible that you’d likely fall or otherwise injure yourself in either of the above scenarios, then you’re not performing the job safely and you may need to consider a different approach. Be mindful of any existing damage or wear

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Lance Day; Ian McNeil (11 September 2002). Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology. Routledge. pp.206–. ISBN 978-1-134-65019-4. Refer to a proper thread gauge if you’re unsure of which size tool you ought to be using for a particular fastener Don’t try to apply more torque than you can handle Most non-adjustable spanners and wrenches can only be used on one particular size of bolt or nut. This means that if you’re dealing with various sizes of fasteners on a single job, you’ll have to bring multiple non-adjustable spanners along with you. For fasteners that have no faces, the hook spanner is designed to tighten and loosen nuts with a periphery with no holes. For example, Stahlwille Adjustable 20mm-42mm Hook Spanner is an adjustable tool that ranges between 20mm-42mm and weighs 90g.

In between uses, store them away securely in an appropriate container or tool box to have the best chance of keeping the tools dry and free from excessive grease, grime or rust When buying this tool, you only get one size per spanner. However, you get access to two types as mentioned previously, which is why they can be considered a good value for money. Combination spanner sets enable you to have several of these spanners in various sizes. Depending on which way you turn the screw mechanism, the jaws of the spanner will begin to open or close accordingly (it’s almost always the smaller lower jaw that actually moves, in relation to the static upper jaw which remains fixed in place.) Third Step The types of size guides you need to bear in mind will be slightly different when choosing and buying either an adjustable or a non-adjustable wrench. Standard spanners will carry a single size rating, whereas adjustable versions will define a specific range of fastener sizes that the tool in question was designed to accommodate.The potential uses of an adjustable spanner are almost too numerous to mention, but in essence they all perform the same fundamental task. Their key role is to enable the tool user to achieve a firm tightening or loosening grip on multiple different sizes of fastener, as opposed to having to swap for a different non-adjustable spanner size every time they come up against a new gauge/diameter of nut, bolt or pipe section. Once you’ve got the tool to grip the fastener as tightly as required, proceed much as you would with any other, non-adjustable spanner: turn the fastener right to tighten it, or left to loosen it When in use, the box spanner fits over the top of the fastener, meaning it touches all edges of the nut or bolt, and the Tommy bar is used to tighten or loosen it. The spanner’s size can be measured in various ways, such as Whitworth, BA, metric and imperial AF (across flats) sizes. This spanner usually has two profiles, which are found at either end, and these can be different. Most often, they have a hexagonal shape because this is the most common shape for fasteners. For those requiring a double ended spanner, the Bahco 30mm & 32mm Double Ended Spanner is manufactured from alloy steel and has a phosphate coating to help prevent corrosion.